Iroh: The Dragon of the West Collection
by Ursa's number one fan
Summary: A collection of short fic that focuses on Iroh.
1. Brotherly Love

**Title**: Brotherly Love  
**Characters**: Iroh  
**Rating**: G  
**Warnings**: None  
**Disclaimer: **I do not own avatar the last airbender.

It was the first time the young officer had been outside the Fire Nation. He was a member of the secret Pai Sho society, which was known for their use of Lotus tiles as identifiers between members.

An Earth Kingdom citizen gave the Fire Nation man a scroll.

"What this?" asked the young Fire Nation prince.

"It is a map of all the safe spots in Earth Kingdom," the man explained in a hushed voice. "There the society will protect its members."

"Thank you."

"You would have done the same for me," the man said to Iroh. He knew that what he was doing could be considered treason. He was helping a member of Fire Nation royalty.

Iroh could not believe what had just happened. This man was protecting him, like a brother would. But the man wasn't even in the same nation as him; in fact their countries were at war. He knew Ozai would never do anything even close to helping him, he wondered if others brothers treated each other better.


	2. Absolute Control

**Title: **Absolute Control

**Characters: **Iroh, Ozai

**Rating: **PG

**Summary: **Explanation on Iroh's behavior while in prison

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender.

**A/N: **If this seems familair it's because I had it posted separtely before but decided to combine all my Iroh fics into one collection

Iroh sat in the cell reflecting on how things came to be. As he mulled over his past, especially his past with his brother, one memory stuck.

"_Brother, you know why you're not now the Fire Lord?" Ozai asked in a mocking tone. "It's because you lost your mind when Lu Ten died. Everyone knew, even Father. Why do you think he changed his successor?"_

_Iroh frowned seeing through his brother's words, "You know that is a lie."_

"_Come on," Ozai said shortly. "Anyone put in the situation father was in would've done the same. Considering how much time and manpower you waste when you abandoned your duty and lost us our best chance at Ba Sing Se. I can't imagine the impact of damages that you inflicted on father with that failure; he was so disappointed in you. It's obvious that we would have won if you weren't such a fool."_

_Iroh wished he could just ignore his brother's words, but they hit him where it hurt, his brother was always good at that. After a few moments of silence he noticed Ozai was looking at him expectantly, waiting on his reaction. Iroh didn't trust Ozai's motives, the whole set up felt like a trap. The general decided that retreat was the best strategy and left the room without another word._

Looking back on that old memory Iroh realized that he ended up right where Ozai had always wanted him. Ozai finally had absolute control over his brother's life. It was depressing at first, but Iroh cane to realize that he had to and could take advantage of even in this horrifying situation. Since Lu Ten's death, Ozai always made remarks about Iroh's mental state, normally not flatteringly. Iroh knew it was time for him to use his brother's insulting theories against him. If his brother expected him to be senile and mad, he would oblige his brother, or at least appear to and hope no one would catch on until it was too late.


	3. Coping

**Title:** Coping  
**Characters:** Iroh  
**Prompt:** #37 Turbulence  
**Rating:** G  
**Summary:** Iroh reflects on difficult times in his life.  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own avatar the last airbender

As Iroh fled though the dark halls of the prison, he couldn't help but to wonder about Zuko. Since Zuko was banished Iroh had wanted to help his nephew understand ups and downs of life and to be able to cope with them. Iroh felt that when he dwelled too much on his own problems, his life was worse for it.

He remembered the first major tragedy in his life: his mother's death. He was fairly young at the time, but he had always had a very strong bond with his mother. It had felt like the end of the world, at that time, without of her support. Iroh discovered that others encouraged him as much as she did and so he was able to move on.

There were many times during his military career Iroh had made mistakes and had to pay for them. There were a lot of casualties in his regime because of a foolish mistake of his. He felt that he had let a lot of people down. He had even gone to Azulon and had a very intense conversation about them. It made him dwell on the subject even more. In time, life began to feel better for Iroh, he was more aware of what methods cause problems and he had more confidence in his military strategy.

Iroh remembered the worst moment of his life. Lu Ten's death. It had a long-lasting devastating impact in his life. The death of his beloved son itself was bad enough but during Iroh's depressed state he was taken advantage of. Ozai had worked hard to convince their father of his brother's inability to rule the Fire Nation. Luckily for Iroh his father was supportive of him, but because his state he didn't realize how far Ozai would go to gain power.

The situation went from bad to worse. It hurt Iroh greatly, but the Dragon of the West recovered from it. But still he couldn't help but wonder if he hadn't been so grief-stricken he would still have lost his rightful place of throne to his brother.

It wasn't until he spoke up, volunteering to accompany the newly exiled youth that Iroh began to take interest in his nephew's personal life. Iroh wanted to be there to guide him and teach him to cope before he lost his rightful place on the throne to Azula.


End file.
